There is always great risk involved when a production company puts it in her mind to do a film or TV series based on a well known source from another country that takes place in that country! To find the right actors who are believable as foreigners is one thing. You need to take a very good and well known actor to get the audience on your side, to kindly look over the anachronism. But the most difficult thing is to get the mood right. Every country has a certain flair which is hard to grasp, but you know it when it is missing.
Fortunately, there are some remarkably good examples, the Brits seem to have a knack for this kind of challenge. Both, the Kurt Wallander series with Kenneth Branagh, which plays in Sweden, and the Maigret series with Rowan Atkinson, that takes place in France, are excellent. But also Italy with its huge output of Spaghetti Western did the job very well.
Germany apparently has no such talent, although it has a long list of attempts. The Edgar Wallace film series from the 60's comes of course to mind, as well as the Father Brown and the Jerry Cotton series and all Karl May films from the same era, to name just a few. Why is there such an interest in Germany in trying to imitate films from other countries? The reason might be that they feel that their own country does not appeal to movie goers and TV audience that much.
Anyway, long introduction, let's change to Kommissar Dupin. Unfortunately, it did not get better! Again, no flair, no good lead actor, one only wonders how all this German actors got into this story that should celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of Brittany and the Bretons. A sad thing. I know the books and they are great. I guess the idea was, since the books are written by a German (under a french pen name) in such a convincing way, it must be easy to film it for German TV. Well, the result is a disaster.
I was looking forward to see the film version of this book I just had read. Luckily it was not the other way around, otherwise I would never have read the book. Almost all that makes the book so touching disappeared or has been heavily altered, especially the characters and some of their ticks. That hurts, when Dupin says he hates fish! In the books he is a connoisseur of seafood and all and everything the local cuisine has to offer. His two assistants are too young and too old, Claire his girlfriend does not appear in this book and Nolvenn, his secretary is too young to be the motherly figure she is in the books. Some characters of the book have been dropped, instead there is a lot of senseless running around on the island. The whole film is like a cartoon version of a serious story, many wrong feelings and reactions and Dupin remains two-dimensional and slightly stupid to the end. Better to read only the books!!!
Fortunately, there are some remarkably good examples, the Brits seem to have a knack for this kind of challenge. Both, the Kurt Wallander series with Kenneth Branagh, which plays in Sweden, and the Maigret series with Rowan Atkinson, that takes place in France, are excellent. But also Italy with its huge output of Spaghetti Western did the job very well.
Germany apparently has no such talent, although it has a long list of attempts. The Edgar Wallace film series from the 60's comes of course to mind, as well as the Father Brown and the Jerry Cotton series and all Karl May films from the same era, to name just a few. Why is there such an interest in Germany in trying to imitate films from other countries? The reason might be that they feel that their own country does not appeal to movie goers and TV audience that much.
Anyway, long introduction, let's change to Kommissar Dupin. Unfortunately, it did not get better! Again, no flair, no good lead actor, one only wonders how all this German actors got into this story that should celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of Brittany and the Bretons. A sad thing. I know the books and they are great. I guess the idea was, since the books are written by a German (under a french pen name) in such a convincing way, it must be easy to film it for German TV. Well, the result is a disaster.
I was looking forward to see the film version of this book I just had read. Luckily it was not the other way around, otherwise I would never have read the book. Almost all that makes the book so touching disappeared or has been heavily altered, especially the characters and some of their ticks. That hurts, when Dupin says he hates fish! In the books he is a connoisseur of seafood and all and everything the local cuisine has to offer. His two assistants are too young and too old, Claire his girlfriend does not appear in this book and Nolvenn, his secretary is too young to be the motherly figure she is in the books. Some characters of the book have been dropped, instead there is a lot of senseless running around on the island. The whole film is like a cartoon version of a serious story, many wrong feelings and reactions and Dupin remains two-dimensional and slightly stupid to the end. Better to read only the books!!!
